‘Law & Order: SVU’: Kelli Giddish Breaks Down Rollins & Benson’s Painful Conversation

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Episode 11 “Career Psychopath.”]

The Thursday, January 22, episode of Law & Order: SVU is a tough one for Rollins (Kelli Giddish) all around. First, her and Carisi’s (Peter Scanavino) home is broken into — he’s held hostage, but the two eventually fight back — and then when it seems like it’s all linked back to psychopath Henry Mesner (Ethan Cutkosky, in his third episode), Benson (Mariska Hargitay) refuses to let her visit him.

But, it turns out, Henry’s not the one behind the break-in or recent attacks on those who helped put him away. Rather, it’s the boyfriend of Henry’s sister, Ruby (Maxine Wanderer), whom he’d terrorized, because he’s a fan of her brother’s. Life hasn’t been easy for Ruby since Henry killed the rest of their family, and after she tells Rollins she wishes she hadn’t saved her, the sergeant replies, “So do I!” It’s after that that Benson pulls her from the interrogation.

Benson argues that she’s trying to protect Rollins by keeping her from going to see Henry, then reminds her that Ruby and the sergeant are both victims. “You never turn it off,” Rollins says to her. “Not everyone deserves your empathy!” Benson takes her off the case, but Rollins goes to see Henry. And it’s during their conversation that she realizes that he’s not the mastermind of these attacks. All he can offer are fan letters from Ruby’s boyfriend that he never even read.

After the case is closed, Rollins stops in to see Benson; Huang (BD Wong), who came out of retirement to give the sergeant her psych evaluation and also ended up a victim during the case since he’d been Henry’s psychiatrist as a child, tries to break the ice but it doesn’t do much good. Benson tells Rollins not to apologize if she doesn’t mean it, and after hesitating, Rollins does say that she lost some of her trust. As Benson sees it, she understands why she did what she did, the same way Rollins understands that she’ll never do it again. Rollins agrees.

As for Henry, Benson hopes this is the last time they ever have to think about him again, and the episode ends on him alone in his cell.

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Below, Kelli Giddish breaks down Rollins’ important scenes with Benson and Henry and more.

Rollins and Benson in this episode, the way they butt heads about visiting Henry, that intense disagreement after talking to Ruby. Notably, in the follow-up conversation at the end of the episode, Rollins does not apologize for what she said to Benson about empathy… How much of that does she believe is true?

Kelli Giddish: Well, I think in that case, she feels like that’s standing between her and getting the answer to what’s happened, what’s really happening. And in that moment, she believes it wholeheartedly because it’s standing in her way. Now, how she operates on a day-to-day basis, I think she is so respectful and in awe of Benson’s continuing day after day after day belief in people and belief in knowing people can find their way out of anything. I think that’s one of the things she most respects about her. But in that moment, it’s standing between Rollins and Rollins getting to the truth of the matter, which infuriates her.

I don’t think we could have had a scene like that if Rollins and Benson weren’t as close as they are.

1000%. 1000%. And that’s a characteristic that she absolutely, like I said, appreciates about her friend. And I think you’re absolutely right that they could not — there’s no possible way to have that meaningful of a conversation, that cutting of a conversation, if you didn’t know that they knew each other and that ultimately they have each other’s backs no matter what.

Then at the end, Rollins has apologized for losing Benson’s trust. So how does Rollins feel about their relationship as it stands at the end of the episode?

Well, I mean, she’s been there before where she’s lost Benson’s trust. I think Rollins knows that Benson is aware of her new situation, of her new stability, her new way of thinking something through instead of just acting on impulse. So to lose a little bit of her trust, it’s a different thing now. I don’t really think that she lost her trust. I think coming to her and saying that, and I think it’s a continuing conversation with them, I think it’s something that they laugh about in the future, you know what I mean? As friends do, time plus tragedy. And I think it just adds another layer to their relationship. It’s a layer that one person can come and say, “Hey, I was completely wrong and I’m sorry.” You know what I mean? So that’s just another layer to their relationship, which I so enjoy.

So we’re not going to see this greatly affecting them going forward where their relationship is going to be different? It’s still what we’ve been seeing?

Yeah. And I mean, like I said, I think sometimes things happen and you see the ramifications of them more down the line. So maybe it’ll pop its head back up, but in a case-to-case basis, they’ve known each other for so long and they’ve worked together for so long, I think they’re on really solid ground.

Talk about filming those two scenes with Mariska. You two together are so good.

It’s a pleasure and a joy, and I look forward to those days that I get to film with her. It feels very alive and very intense. And I think we’re both just so present in the scene and nothing’s the same for every take. We always say we wish we could just have two cameras, both of our coverage being taken at both at the same time because it’s always so different every take. And we find new things and we kind of focus on one thing more than the other in other takes, which that’s fun. That’s so much fun as an actor to get to play with somebody. It’s totally like playing. And I love having her as a scene partner.

Ralph Bavaro/NBC

Is Rollins putting Henry in the past now at the end of this episode or does she feel like she might have to revisit even just to remind him of that threat that she’d left him with the last time? Because also as we hear at the beginning of this episode, there were multiple possible suspects. So it’s not like she has to just worry about one specific person.

No, I don’t think that she would mind reminding him at all in the future because I think she’s also fascinated with how his brain works. I think she’s fascinated with it and in a morbid way, whatever. But what he’s done in his life and the choices he’s made and just how his brain works is so abnormal, and I think she’s so curious about that. How did it get that way? It’s not going change, but does it continue? Why does it continue? Those are things I know I’m curious about and I think Rollins shares my curiosity there.

Speaking of that, because Benson hopes it’s the last time they have to think about Henry again. But like you were just saying, Rollins is curious about him. So does it feel to you like there’s another episode there where we could see her visiting him?

I mean, sure. Yeah. Because like I said, I don’t think her mind ever just shuts that off. I think she’s eternally going to be curious about how somebody can do the things he’s done and doing it without a conscience.

I would love to see that because just the two of you sitting across the table, like those scenes were great.

Yeah. So it was so fun to film. It was so fun to film those, the kind of weaving in and out of trying to get things from him was fun to play with.

Especially in this episode, when we see that she has the upper hand and she can see through him and knows he’s not involved.

Right, right. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. I think they did such a good job with the episode and making it interesting and making the turns totally not what you expect.

I know. To revisit Ruby in this way…

Yeah. Yeah. And it was so good to get to see her. I forget how old she was when we did the first episode. It was 13 years ago?

Yeah.

So, God, was she really five?

Wow.

Because she was 18. So it’s insane. So now she’s in her first year of college and she’s coming back to do this role and I’m so glad that they cast her on it. She did such a great job. And it’s so fun to see somebody — what other show is on for this long that you can have guest stars come back 13 years later and continue the storyline? There’s nothing. There’s no shows out there like that. So it’s quite an honor to be on one that allows that to happen.

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Speaking of people coming back, Huang to do the therapy session with Rollins, and he says he wants her to slow down. Can she?

No.

I just don’t see that ever happening either.

Yeah, no, no. That’s not who she is.

How was filming that scene? Because I feel like the one-on-one therapy sessions really bring out the best in actors because it’s just the two characters sitting there.

It’s the best. It’s the best. When you get those kinds of scripts and it’s just one scene after another where you get to play a different facet of your character, that’s dreamy. And that scene, it was just super focused. We both knew how we wanted to play it. The director was really helpful, and we were all kind of on the same page and we went in there and got it done and you go home feeling really good about your work.

Law & Order: SVU, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC